Cotton heritage museum planned for Stanhill (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Cotton heritage museum planned for Stanhill

4:00pm Saturday 20th October 2012 in News

A MUSEUM charting East Lancashire’s cotton heritage could become a reality thanks to a housing scheme.

Stanhill Village Residents Association hopes to celebrate their village as the birthplace of spinning jenny inventor James Hargreaves.

Now a housing development coming to the village could see the group awarded funds to make the plan of a namesake museum a reality.

A plan to bring a housing development to Peel Fold Mill in the village was rubber stamped by Hyndburn Council earlier this month.

Councillors are campaigning to see the practice of developers’ paying a sum of money to the council, known as 106 funding, dedicated towards helping the museum take shape.

Tens of thousands of pounds could be granted in payment to Hyndburn Council by the developer, Morris Homes A number of councillors have also pledged their support to see funding made available for Stanhill Methodist Chapel to refurbished into a museum.

The invention by the illiterate carpenter and weaver helped to spark the Industrial Revolution with its superior methods for producing cotton.

Coun Peter Britcliffe said he applauded the attempts of the group to create a local attraction.

He said: “They have my full support and I feel that really, they have a moral right to the money.

“The planning process is slow, so it will be some time before they hear anything, but they have the full support of local councillors. As residents, they have been amazingly proactive”.

Richard Hopper, of the residents’ group, said that members ideally hoped to gain up to between £25,000 and £30,000 for the scheme.

He said: “We are not impatient and we know the council are considering our request. We don’t really know how much is being offered by the developer and I know the talks take quite a bit of time.

“The ideas for the museum are going really well and if we could get the funding we need too, it would be brilliant.”

Council leader Miles Parkinson said: “The council supports any community group who are willing to work together to benefit their area. It needs to be a sustainable plan, and times are hard at the moment, but the principle is that these groups should be supported wherever possible. I wish them the best of luck.”

Comments are closed on this article.